Dispatcher helps couple deliver baby in bathroom

An Ankeny woman’s fourth child came quickly in an unusual delivery on Mother’s Day.

“It went from mild contractions to ‘I am feeling this baby,’ and it is coming very fast,” said mother Rose Ayers.

Ayers’ baby’s entrance into the world was a real team effort that started with a call from the master bathroom in her Ankeny home.

“My wife is pregnant. The water just broke, and it seems like she is having the baby now,” said Ayers’ husband, Kenny Ayers, during the dispatch call.

On the other end of the call was Polk County dispatcher Thomas Heckler.

“It was my first delivery. I had to remain cool and calm,” said Heckler.

“(My wife) basically laid on the floor, and the next thing, there was the head. And yeah, it was definitely unexpected,” said Kenny Ayers. “My thought once I saw the head was basically, ‘Am I going to have to deliver this? Are they going to get someone here fast enough?’”

“(The husband) wanted to push the baby back in. I told him, ‘No, we are going to have a baby. You got to have a baby, and we’re going to push,’” said Heckler.

“I was yelling a lot of orders at him, ‘Catch the baby. Get her out,’” said Rose Ayers.

“I really had no choice in the matter on this one,” said Kenny Ayers.

Kenny Ayers said paramedics were still minutes away, but his daughter wasn't waiting.

“(My baby) was lying on the floor and I could see Kenny rubbing her back,” said Rose Ayers. “We didn’t have anything to suck it out of her mouth or anything, so I am just kind of trying to tip her over, kind of like a baby CPR, and just cough it out herself.

“It felt an eternity for me, a long time,” said Kenny Ayers.

“I’m normally not an emotional person, but that stood out,” said Heckler.

The couple named their baby, Stormy. She weighs 6 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 inches long.

“She came out like a storm with a vengeance,” said Rose Ayers.

“It’s going to be an interesting story when she gets older,” said Kenny Ayers. “If (the dispatcher) wasn't there, I don't know what we would've done.”

Heckler and Stormy got to meet for the first time last week.

Heckler said he knew what to do because of good training and they have manuals in the computer system that walk them through what to say.

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